50 years after Apollo, conspiracy theorists still howling at the "hoax of the moon"

However, none of this will likely change the minds of people living in a universe of parallel beliefs where NASA simulated the Apollo moon landings.

The hoax of the moon is a classical conspiracy theory – elaborate, strangely sustainable, requiring the existence of malicious actors with a secret agenda. Moon makers are supposedly so competent that they can fool the whole world (but not so competent that they can actually put humans on the moon).

The researchers suggest that conspiracy theories propagate more easily in today's information world, with the Internet functioning as a superconductor. A growing science of conspiracy seeks to understand who these people are, why they subscribe to such ideas and whether there is anything that can dislodge a theory of the truly magnetic conspiracy of the true believer's mind.

Polls show that about 5 or 6 percent of the public adheres to the lunar hoax theory, said former NASA chief historian, Roger Launius. This is a modest figure, but these people have been reliable every time Launius gave a lecture on the subject: "They are very noisy and like to confront you".

While NASA is celebrating Apollo 11, the space agency must decide whether, and how, it must react to the lun-hoax conspiracy theory.

In response to a question from the Washington Post, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel issued a statement that there is "a significant amount of evidence supporting the 12 astronauts landed from NASA on the Moon." between 1969 and 1972, "and pointed out some of this evidence:" 842 pounds of lunar rocks collected by astronauts have been studied by scientists around the world for decades; You can still bounce the terrestrial lasers from the retroreflective mirrors placed on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts; NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter photographed the landing sites in 2011.. . "

Etc. But it's a difficult situation for NASA.

The proof that moon landings were real is exactly what a conspirator would expect to be made by an organization committed to deceiving the public. This is the eternal puzzle for the debulters.

The theory never dies

In an iteration of the theory, the Apollo Missions were filmed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick, who directed "2001: The Odyssey of Space".

Bill Kaysing, former technical editor, published in 1976 a book entitled "We never went to the moon", which has become a fundamental text in the mythology of the lunar hoax.

In 2001, Fox TV broadcast a documentary titled "The Conspiracy Theory: Have We Landed on the Moon?" With actor Mitch Pileggi of the television series "The X-Files" one of the themes was "Trust No One"). narrator.

The conspiracy theory continues to appear.

In a podcast discussion with other NBA players in December, basketball superstar Stephen Curry hinted that humans had not gone to the moon. (He quickly backed up, apologized and had a friendly conversation with astronaut Scott Kelly.)

An essential feature of the lunar hoax idea is that the photos taken by Apollo astronauts (so-called!) Just do not look right. For example, where are the stars? In addition, there is no explosive crater under the lunar lander.

The camera could not capture the faint light of the stars behind the astronauts and other bright objects on the sunny surface. And in the soft gravity field of the moon, the landing gear of the landing gear does not need to produce much thrust to settle on the surface of the moon.

NASA reacted to the book and film by issuing a statement citing the rocks of the moon as compelling evidence: "Rocks and particles, always studied by scientists around the world, have clearly formed in an atmosphere without oxygen or water and show significant chemical differences between all the rocks of the Earth already known. "

Astronomer Phil Plait dissected the hypothesis of a hoax in a blog post of 2001 that constitutes the final demystification. "Their testimony is actually as tenuous as the emptiness of space itself," wrote Plait.

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, reacted more directly when he was warned by conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel outside a Beverly Hills hotel in 2002.

Sibrel, waving a Bible and asking Aldrin to swear on it, said, "It was you who said that you walked on the moon when you did not do it. . . . You are a coward, a liar and a thief. "

PAN.

Aldrin adorned it with a right cross.

Often strange, sometimes toxic

Conspiracy theories may seem strange and marginal, but they are not harmless. They often convey racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic beliefs. In their most toxic form, these theories have led to violence, including large-scale shootings. Behind many conspiracy theories hides an omnipresent rage. Many researchers and communicators who deal with marginal conspiracy theories face threats and venomous and misogynist harassment.

A conspiracy theory does not have to provide all the answers. It only needs to open the consensus narrative and expose potential gaps or anomalies of what we know. The classical conspiracy theory is therefore an open narrative. The only thing the conspiracy theorist knows for sure is that what the experts say is not true.

In a 2012 article titled "Dead and alive: beliefs in conflicting conspiracy theories", researchers have shown that people with a high degree of conspiracy can adopt two mutually exclusive narratives, provided they reject the traditional consensus . For example, people more inclined to believe that Princess Diana simulated her death were also more likely to believe that she had been murdered. Both can not be true.

In a 2013 article, cognitive science scientist Stephan Lewandowsky and two of their colleagues discovered that conspiratorial thinking was helping to reject the scientific consensus on issues such as climate change, vaccine safety and HIV / AIDS. People likely to suffer conspiracies begin with a state of mind – the world is filled with secret forces with malicious intent – and may be led to believe in new conspiracies.

Lovers of "flat land"

The idea of ​​the lunar hoax is closely related to the theory of "flat land", which has gained the support of many followers in recent years through social media and viral videos.

"In reality, you're in a giant planetarium, a terrarium, a sound stage, a Hollywood movie that's so big that you and everyone you know and have never heard of," says a big man. apartment. Earther, Mark Sargent, in the documentary "Behind the Curve".

In Sargent's version of the Earth, Antarctica is a 200-foot-high ice wall that surrounds the Earth's disk like salt abundantly applied to the edge of a Margarita. The sun and the moon are two lights circling the sky like planes in a maintenance pattern.

When Asheley Landrum, a psychologist at Texas Tech University, attended the first International Flat Earth Conference near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, she discovered that 29 of 30 respondents had embraced Earth's argument. after watching YouTube videos, and the only exception was hearing from family members who had watched these videos.

They usually watched conspiracy videos on topics such as the Sandy Hook school shooting or the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and YouTube recommended the videos on Flat Earth. They followed the track traced by computer algorithms.

The people interviewed by Landrum first expressed skepticism about the notions of flat land. The conversion process involved an ongoing investigation – what Landrum described as a change in attitude resulting from a "thoughtful or systematic thoughtful" approach. They tried to do things well.

Landrum said that she had found out that people were more likely to be open to the idea of ​​a flat Earth if they were poorly literate in science and endowed with the idea of ​​a flat land. a conspiracy mentality. His research suggests that flatlanders occupy all points of the traditional political spectrum, but share a common mistrust of the government and the authorities.

At the conference, each interviewee stated that the moon landings were fake. They do not think the Earth is a planet. The Earth is a disk and its center is the North Pole (as everyone can see on the official United Nations emblem).

"The most fundamental thing that is affirmed is that people are special. We are not a speck of dust floating in this vast space, but the Earth is the center of things. We do not move. We are not a planet. That's it. The sky is above the Earth, hell is below the Earth, "Landrum said.

In August 1971, astronaut James Irwin during the Apollo 15 lunar mission. One of the versions of the conspiracy theory is that the Apollo missions were filmed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick. (David Scott / NASA / Reuters)

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